Completely revolutionizing the electric vehicle business model which otherwise depends on the charging service for some of its income, according to Fehrenbacher, Tesla secretly built the free solar-powered Supercharger stations in order to mitigate three major issues that prohibit buyers from purchasing EVs: the inability to easily drive long distances, the problem of electricity sourced from conventional fossil fuel plants and lastly the high cost of electricity.

The map above reveals the six Supercharger locations that are currently active, but Musk announced that eventually Tesla will ensure that there are free stations in high-traffic areas all over North America, and in 2013, the company will also ship this service to Asia and Europe. “Because the technology is using solar power, as well as previously designed technology for Model S charging, Tesla says the chargers are cheap to build and install,” writes Fehrenbacher. Basically, Tesla just completely changed the future of EV charging, and we’re excited to see what will happen next.